Search This Blog

Loading...

Thursday, August 19, 2010

"Spirits" in Flint

The little town of Flint was all alive with excitement on Tuesday evening on account of the destruction of some of the "spirits" of the town by the fair hands of some of the ladies in the neighborhood. About thirty of them assembled in front of Mr. Carpenter's grocery, and after some conversation, they entered the room, knocked in the heads of the whiskey barrels and other spirituous casks, and after the fluid had all run out they took the casks and built a bonfire in front of the building. The proprietor would not be bought out or reasoned out of the injurious practice of selling whiskey to those who under the influence of it daily made it difficult for any lady to pass along the street without being insulted or abused by harsh and obscene language.
The men having the will, failed to have the courage to militate the existing state of things, so the ladies after visiting him time after time, imploring and pleading in tears with him that he would not ruin, disgrace and destroy their families, resolved that they would abate the nuisance themselves. The ladies first advanced a flag of truce, asking the cessation of the sale of the article, with the treaty ready to be signed. This being refused, the action began. Front and rear you could hear hatchets, axes, hammers, and various implements of warfare, sing their temperance songs. As the commander of the fort could not be omnipresent, the works were entered. Then came the tug of war. The proprietor stood with raised club, ready to strike, but he was]
soon compelled to yield and listen to the notes of the sledge. The scene closed by the ladies singing a temperance song, and the passing of the following resolution: "Be it resolved that we will use all our efforts to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors in Flint henceforth and forever."Steuben Republican. September 4, 1895